Perpetual calendar



Feb. 9, 1954 c s, SPENCER 2,668,382

PERPETUAL CALENDAR Filed Dec. 19, 1950 Clarence 5. Spencer 1N VEN TOR.

Patented Feb. 9, 1954 PERPETUAL CALENDAR Clarence S. Spencer, Virginiatown, Ontario, Canada Application December 19, 1950, Serial No; 201,506

(CL Q-1 3 Claims. 1

This invention relates to perpetual calendars which may be used for any number-of years and to that type of calendars which may be used for the correlation of: the days of the week or of indications made. in weeks with the monthly dates of: each weekday and. with the month in any, year which may be selected whether this year is a Current year or a year of the past or future.

Many typesof calendars of this kind have been constructed, but most of them have either a rather complex construction or require a relatively complex operation. Those types of calendars in which no mechanical structure correlating the indications is used employ key tables with letters or figures which have tov be selected and the user has to proceed from tableto table, each table furnishing a new letter or figure which'has then to be translated into the adjusting movement for the monthly dates, the, months, the Weekdays etc.

Such a manipulation is rather complex and errors are frequent. Moreover such a manipulationrequires a certain skill or versatility on the Ipart of the. user.

is used, the, latter indicator being ofthe type which is currently used, in adjustable calendars and the two tables being arranged for direct cooperation insofar as a slide cooperating with one table is directly adjusted with e pec 30 h other table. Asa result of this adjustm t r a slide weekday indications are displayed which give the weekday for the first of, each month, an indication which may directly serve to adjust the weekday-monthly date indicator in the usual and .well known way.' The system is thus simplified to such an extent that errors are practically excluded and no special attention or skill is necessary for performing any of the adjustments.

A further object of the invention consists in providing the slidev which cooperates with the tables not only with the name of the months in order to facilitate the reading but also with a pointer or other indicator which points to the .months for which the reading of the table is taken which indicator may also serve as a month indicator for a perpetual calendar if the structure is used as such.

Further objects of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed specification.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing showing one embodiment thereof. It is however to be understood that this embodiment is shown by way of example only in order to explain the principle of the invention and the best mode of applying said principle. The specification does not describe or illustrate all the pose.

sible embodiments ofthe invention and a deparmm from the example shown is therefore not necessarily a departure from the principle of the invention.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic viewof the front or upper side of the calendar.

Figure 2 is a view of the front or upper side of the frame plate.

Figure 3 is a side or edge view of the calendar, the View being taken in the, direction indicated by the arrows 3-3 in Figure 1.

Figure 415a cross sectional view on an enlarged scale through a portion of the slide andframe plate, the section being taken along the line 4.4 of Figure 1.

The calendar according. to theinvention comprises a, frame, plateor backboard 5 which may be an independent holder or car ie for he ca cudar or which may merely be the front portionof an article and which may therefore be of any material adapted to carry the calendar structure described below. The article may be of any shape and need not be of. a type hav n a p a e urface. For. instance the article may be cylindrical or provided with a curved surface. The frame plate may a so be trans arent in rder t n m t h a sa f igh if osi ioned in f of a Source of light.

The frame plate or backboard 5 essentially is divided into two sections. Each of these sections is provided with a grooved slideway in which a slide in the form of another plate or sheet may be moved. The slideway indicated at 6 in the left section of the backboard may be formed, as indicated in FigureB, by sheets i, 8 forming layers which are glued or otherwise fixed to the frame plate 5, the outer sheet or layer 8 overlapping the intermediate layer or sheet l so that a groove 9 is formed in which the slide it is retained. The groove may also be formedby making a recess in the frame plate and by undercutting the edges of the recess.

When a cylindrical or curved object is used as a backboard or carrying member for the calendar the slide is of course curved accordingly. I

The secondsection of the frame plate 5 is likewise provided with a slideway Ii for a slide l5 results.

In the right hand section of the frame plate a table it is arranged between the slideways H which contains 13 (or 14) vertical columns and six horizontal lines or rows. Into these columns the monthly dates are entered each column con-- taining a series of monthly dates for a definite weekday. 'The slide i5 which cooperates with this table [6 merely consists of a plate or sheet provided with a window 28 and with weekday indications 19 above or below said window. The weekday indications are so arranged that each of them may be placed above one of the columns.

The window 20 is of a width which corresponds to seven columns and when the edges of the slide window 20 are brought into coincidence with the lines separating the columns the monthly dates of all weekdays in a given month are displayed. In order to place the slide IS in a position in which the correct dates for a given month are displayed the monthly date of one weekday in the month must be known which day, for instance, may be the first of the month. Therefore if a slide is placed with respect to the table into such a position that the weekday indication for the selected weekday on top of the window is above the first of the month this position will give the proper monthly dates for all days of the week automatically.

Above the slide i a further window 23 may be arranged on the frame plate 5 in which the name of the month may appear. A rotatable disk 24 may be pivotally fixed to the frame plate 5 by means of a pin 2! which disk carries the names of all the months of the year. The disk is rotated by hand.

The right hand section of the frame plate thus forms an adjustable calendar such as usable for calendars which are not of the perpetual calendar type. This arrangement is made in order to enable the user to operate the perpetual calendar like an ordinary adjustable calendar. The right section of the frame plate may therefore, for instance, be very large so as to form a wall calendar with the left section forming a mere attachment if the calendar is primarily to be used as an adjustable ordinary calendar. However, when the purpose of using the calendar as a perpetual calendar is predominant the right hand section of the calendar may be small, as indicated in the drawing, and the month indicator above the slide l5 may be omitted.

The left hand portion of the frame plate contains the indications which permit to adjust the monthly date slide for any date which may have been selected in the past or in the future or which permits the current adjustment for any number of years. The left hand section of the frame plate 5 is accordingly provided with a fourteen column table which is subdivided horizontally into twelve lines or rows, one line or row for each month.

In this fourteen column table 25 the weekday indications are entered preferably in an abbreviated form, for instance, by using the initials of the weekdays. As some of the initials are identical a distinctive color may be used or a distinctive mark may be added in order to distinguish similar initials. For instance, Sundays may be marked in red to distinguish them from Saturdays and Tuesdays and Thursdays may likewise be distinguished by different colors or by the addition of a second letter or the like. All twelve lines of the table 25 contain the same indications consisting in the enumeration of the weekday marks or initials for two weeks starting, for example, with Sunday of one week and ending with Saturday of the next week.

The table 25 cooperates with the slide 18 which is movable in the groove 9 along the slideway 5. On the left hand side of the slide the months are enumerated in such a manner that each month appears in one line. This line cooperates with one of the lines of the table 25. On the line indicated by each month a small window 28, 29 is provided in the slide, this window being of such size that it uncovers a single indication of the table below the slide. The window 29 for the months of January and February however are somewhat wider so that they uncover two adjacent indications of a line in the table 25. In every position of the slide therefore, a weekday indication will appear on the same line with the name of a month and this week day indication discloses the correct weekday corresponding to the first day of the month.

In order to avoid misreading of the indication and in order to provide, if necessary, a substitute for the month indicator 23 if the latter should be omitted a sliding pointer 30 is arranged on the slide H3. This pointer arrangement preferably comprises a small slide member 32 from which an arm projects which carries the pointer 30. Said pointer is preferably arranged in substantial parallelism to the slide i9 and at right angles to the arm projecting from the slide member 32. The small slide member 32 is held by grooved or recessed strips 33, 84 as indicated in Figure 4, which are glued or otherwise fixed to the slide Ill and which preferably cover the entire width of the slide. The pointer is shifted manually from line to line until the name of the month is reached in which the monthly dates have to be correlated with the weekday indications.

In order to adjust the position of the slide NJ for any given year the slide is provided with a mark or with a fixed pointer 35 which cooperates with a year table 26 located on the frame plate 5 immediately above or below the monthly key table 25. This table 26 comprises a number of columns, '7 or a multiple of 7 being preferably used, containing years. The years are arranged in lines containing consecutive years, but with a blank space of one column following each leap year. Consecutive lines always start with consecutive years following the last year in the preceding line. The arrangement is shown in Figures 1 and 2 with the current years nearest to the table 25 and with the last years for which said table is valid on top. The arrangement may of course be reversed. Into each line of a seven column table therefore six years are entered and one space is left blank after each leap year.

When the slide 1B is moved in such a way that the pointer 35 points to a column of the year table containing the desired year all the windows 28 show one weekday indication for each month which is the weekday indication corresponding to the first day in the month. As already indicated two of the windows 29 show two weekday indications side by side, the first indication to be used in leap years and the second indication to be used in ordinary or non-leap years. To facilitate a correct reading of the indications leap years may be marked in the year table in one color and ordinary years may be printed in another color and the two halves of the double window 29 may be framed by strips of corresponding colors.

The operation of the calendar is extremely simple. If for instance, the calendar is merely used as a perpetual desk calendar for a series of years, say for twenty-seven years, as indicated, the user adjusts the slide it in such a way that pointer 35 points to the current year. He also shifts the pointer 36 so that it points to the current month. The small window 28 in the line which corresponds to this month indicates the weekday for the first day of the month. The slide in the right hand section of the frame plate is then so adjusted that the weekday indication on top of window 26 sets the correct weekday indicated by means of the slide iii above the first of the month. If a removable month indicator 24 is provided it may be adjusted correspondingly and the user may then merely look at the right hand section of the calendar during the month. At the end of the month he readjusts the slide [5 in accordance with the weekday indication displayed through one of the windows 28 or 29 of the slide it.

If the calendar is used for locating the weekday of a future or past date or for locating the monthly date for a given event which occurred on a certain weekday in a certain year the slides are operated in a similar manner.

In order to exclude errors the pointer 36 may always be shifted to the corresponding month and may be used as a months indicator for the perpetual calendar besides.

It will be understood that the invention is shown in a more or less diagrammatical matter and that the slides and the lengths of the slideways and the dimensions in general are so arranged that merely the dates to be displayed appear while the remainder of the table is covered. Likewise the year table may be expanded so as to cover any number of years and also further changes of an unessential nature may be made without in any way departing from the essence of the invention as defined by the adjoined claims.

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

1. A perpetual calendar with a frame plate provided with slideways, comprising a table arranged between said slideways, each line being allotted to a month, the lines of the table being parallel to the slideways, and containing the weekday indications for a plurality of weeks, aligned in columns, each of said columns being allotted to one weekday, a slide provided with a pointing device, said slide being movable over the above named table and being provided with a window for each line of the table allotted to one month, said window displaying one weekday indication of the table on ten lines, a window so positioned that on two of the lines of the table, a second weekday indication, adjacent to the first indication uncovered which is valid for leap years, a year table arranged in columns of a width equal to that of the columns of the first named table and lines, parallel to the slideways, each line containing successive year indications, and each following line containing the years following those enumerated in an adjacent line, said year table being so arranged with respect to the first named table that the pointing device of the slide when pointing to one of the columns of the year table determines the position of all the slide windows relatively to the weekday columns of the first named table, the weekday indications uncovered by the windows corresponding to the first day of each month in the year to which the marker of the slide has been moved, and a weekday indicator, adjustable by hand, for indicating the weekdays for all other days of the month.

2. A perpetual calendar having a frame plate with slideways, comprising a table arranged on the frame plate between the slideways, said table being arranged in columns and lines, each column corresponding to one weekday and each line corresponding to one month, each line of the table thus containing consecutive weekday indications for a plurality of weeks, and being allotted to one month, a slide cooperating with the above named table, movable along the slideways of the frame plate and provided with a window for each line of the table displaying one of the weekday indications of the same for indicating the weekday corresponding to .the first of the month, a table of years arranged in columns along the slideways for the slide in a definite position relatively to the first mentioned table, said year table being arranged in a number of columns related to the number of weekdays, a marking device on said slide for simultaneously aligning the position of the said last named slide with one of the columns of the year table containing the desired year, and for aligning the windows on the slide with the weekday indications in the columns of the first named tables, said indication corresponding to the weekdays falling on the first of the month during the year with which the marking device has been aligned, and a weekday indicator carried by said frame plate and including a second slide aligned with the first named slide and using one of the slideways of the same, adjustable by hand for indicating the weekday-monthly date relations in a selected month.

3. A perpetual calendar with a frame plate provided with slideways, comprising a table arranged between said slideways, the lines of the table being parallel to the same, said table containing columns, each of which is allotted to one weekday, and lines each allotted to one month of the year, each line containing separate weekday indications for each day of the week for a plurality of weeks, a slide provided with a number of windows arranged in line spaces corresponding to the line spaces of the table, one window being arranged in each line corresponding to a month of the year, and the line space of the slide also carrying the name of the month, said slide being further provided with a pointing marker, a year table having columns of a width equal to that of the columns of the first named table, and lines, parallel to the slideways, said year table being so arranged relatively to the slide that when the pointing marker points to a column containing a selected year the windows of the slide in each line display a weekday indication in each line of the first named table, said weekday indication corresponding to the first day of the month, for every month of the year, and a weekday indicator adjustable by hand for displaying all weekday-monthly date relations of the selected month, said indicator being manually adjusted in accordance with the weekday indication displayed in the selected monthline after adjustment of the slide.

CLARENCE S. SPENCER.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number 

